In fact, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, the trade and lobbying group for the boat builders, says the tax has resulted in the loss of 25,000 jobs. In a 1991 report, the Joint Economic Committee concluded the combined impact of the taxes "is to throw more than 9,000 Americans out of work and to cost the Federal Government nearly $20 million in 1991."

Boat dealers in Maryland and across the nation are hoping that Congress will soon throw them a lifeline by repealing a luxury tax on yachts that has crippled an industry already wracked by the recession.

Mr. Caruso added that negotiations for the sale had begun earlier in anticipation of the repeal of the 10 percent excise or luxury tax on boats costing more than $110,000 and on other expensive items like jewelry and furs, but not on automobiles. "The customer told me he would have never bought the boat if he had had to pay the luxury tax, which would have added $30,000 more to the purchase price," Mr. Caruso said.

But it wasn't long before even those die-hard class warriors noticed they'd badly missed their mark. The taxes took in $97 million less in their first year than had been projected — for the simple reason that people were buying a lot fewer of these goods. Boat building, a key industry in Messrs. Mitchell and Kennedy's home states of Maine and Massachusetts, was particularly hard hit. Yacht retailers reported a 77 percent drop in sales that year, while boat builders estimated layoffs at 25,000.